Air conditioning isn’t the only way to get relief from the Dayton summer’s heat and humidity. By improving your home ventilation to bring in fresh air and remove excess moisture, you can enjoy a comfortable home even if you don’t have an air conditioner.
Natural Home Ventilation
Harnessing natural air currents is the cheapest way to improve airflow throughout your home. Opening windows to allow a cross-breeze is a simple example of this. The problem with this method is that it doesn’t let you filter the incoming air and it doesn’t work at all when there’s little wind.
For somewhat more reliable airflow, a buoyancy-driven (stack) ventilation is another option. This type of system relies on the tendency for warm air to rise. Intake vents on your lower floors let in cool, fresh outdoor air and turbine or other vents on your roof release warm, stale air. This system allows for some air filtration and works even without wind. Even so, it doesn’t give you a way to increase or decrease the airflow as needed.
Using Fans for Greater Control
A ventilation system with an electric fan lets you control how much airflow your home receives and when. If cooling your home with increased airflow is your main goal, consider a whole-house fan. This fan is installed in the attic floor (room ceiling), usually in a hallway. It draws hot air upward and exhausts that air through your roof, creating a slight suction that pulls fresh air in through the open windows.
These fans are allowed to run overnight when the temperature has dropped below 80 degrees. This gets rid of the hot air that’s built up during the day and makes the house easier to keep cool the next day. For this reason, whole-house fans are designed to be used in houses without A/C systems.
Correct sizing and installation of these fans is critical to prevent them from creating excess suction and noise.
For more information on adding home ventilation, contact us at Ace Hardware Home Services, Inc.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Dayton, Ohio about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).
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